Neighbourhood nursing
Referrals
Making a referral
Please complete and return the relevant referral form to us by email.
GPs
Other health professionals
Other hospital doctors
Urgent referrals
Please call us before sending your referral.
Urgent referrals are for patients:
- with blocked catheters who are already on the district nursing caseload
- who need fast discharge from hospital
- who can avoid an admission to hospital
If a referral is urgent, it must be stated on the referral form. We will triage your referral. If we need to we'll contact the referrer and patient.
End of life patients
We'll see end of life patients within 4 hours of their discharge or referral if they:
- wish to come home for the last days of their lives
- need pain and symptom control
Non-urgent and routine referrals
We deal with non-urgent referrals within 24 to 48 hours. They include:
- patients in need of acute and chronic wound management
- post-operative patients
We deal with routine referrals at a convenient time. At busy times this can be up to 2 weeks. Routine referrals include:
- bereavement visits
- flu immunisations
- blood tests
- continence assessments
Please only send a referral form if it is a direct referral and not available on eRS. If the form is on a site like smart survey, please provide the link only.
Referral criteria:
- aged 18 years and over
- clear need for skilled nursing care
- housebound
- acute, terminal or chronic illness and in need of clinical care, advice and support
- in need of assessment and prescribing of appropriate equipment to:
- help care in the home and manage risks
- prevent complications to patients, carers and staff
- in need of assessment and treatment of continence and a proactive focus on achieving continence
- in need of catheter care and management
- in need of immunisation programmes, including winter flu, pneumococcal and shingles
- can diagnose, treat and prescribe from the nurse formulary
- in need of wound management, such as leg ulcers and surgical wounds
- tissue viability and pressure area care, with an emphasis on prevention
- medicines, including intravenous antibiotics (if frequency is no more than once or twice a day) and management of central venous lines, and syringe drivers
- parenteral and enteral feeding
- ear syringing where other methods of wax removal and prevention of accumulation have failed
Escalation
Sometimes our neighbourhood nursing teams reach full capacity. This can impact their ability to take new referrals.
If we have reduced capacity in 1 team only, we'll contact local GPs to tell them. If we have reduced capacity across teams, we'll let you know this through the clinical commissioning group (CCG) communications teams. This will include our plans for addressing the issue.
Referral contacts
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 020 3049 4020, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
Phone: 020 7188 3299, out of hours
Last updated: March 2024